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I have nothing against women - but it will not simply be women that will bring the needed change. Yes, the change that women are bringing is indeed great! The stats are good. But there need not be the sense of an overthrow, but instead one that actively steadily works to be shown worthy, as it should be continuously for everyone irregardless of gender. All kinds will be necessary. We have indeed seen some women in position (or seeking a most powerful one) that would have perhaps been detrimental, outright destructive. (The same can be said of men. We see this quite often, in fact.) Simply placing women in a position is perhaps not the best either. But the significance, I suppose, is the non-marginalization of women across the board that will assist in the needed change. Perhaps the best way to do this is to allow access indiscriminately.

Posted by Judith Ellis at December 8, 2008 3:12 PM

Last year I counted the gender of the CEO’s of 152 Primary Care Trusts (UK healthcare organisations in the National Health Service typically with annual budgets of at least £500 million or $745million and more in many cases). I discovered that 79 of the CEO’s were female and 73 were male. Not really surprising in some ways. Then I recall when I started work in the NHS as a 16 year old in 1969 the score would have been 152-0 to the males without a shadow of a doubt. No one can deny something’s going on. There is plenty of room for all. 'Pecking order' is old fashioned – 'old boys network' is redundant - let’s celebrate equality and diversity. It's not a competition between the sexes - it's about the right person for the right job.

Posted by Trevor Gay at December 8, 2008 4:29 PM

The main correct & salient measure & math here is that women now work because they need to - to support themselves & a family - period.

Posted by Rahib at December 8, 2008 6:53 PM

That is an amazing statistic. This is truly an incredible (both scary and exciting) time to be alive. It seems like almost everything is being turned into a meritocracy these days.

Posted by steve cunningham at December 9, 2008 12:01 AM

Steve - It is indeed exciting, though I am less scared! Meritocracy? For sure! Gotta love it!

Posted by Judith Ellis at December 9, 2008 6:28 AM

Metaphors are coming to mind as I read the upside down and right side up thing.
I've been thinking about this for a while - service industries favor the more feminine side of the human spirit - (there is nothing wrong with this)
making solid hard metal things is more masculine - and it is exactly what TP talked down during the 1990's - everything should be soft - no need for hard anything - and it went to far - that's why Automobiles are where they are - do women find grease monkeys sexy any more?
Guys working on cars (at least in the movies) used to be considered sexy - I think we need a bit more ballance -

Posted by zed at December 9, 2008 8:27 PM

Sounds nice, zed, this world of eternal softness. But is there ever a yin without a yang? The opposite is forever present. In fact, we are the very birth of both. Perhaps the problem in the past has been that many of our decisions have been based solely on gender alone; the attribution of gender roles has silenced the contributions of some. We have decided what men can do and what women can do without a real sense of the possibilities and differences, without a real sense of the significance of the opposite, the needed voice in positions deemed for either gender. With the thought of the hard being soft and soft being hard, the mere image alone probably does more for the psyche than anything else, perhaps translating into actionable decisions daily. Perhaps the signficance is that they are both present, needed and valuable. It's amazing what images can do and how they can make a difference in what we do and how we do it.

Posted by Judith Ellis at December 10, 2008 5:31 AM

Believe it, the U.S. car companies gave us cars that lots of us didn't want. (That's at least as much of the problem as costs.) Women make two-thirds of car purchase decisions. Car designers are still probably 75% (??) male. I.e., if the car industry had been a little bit more "feminine" it might have avoided some of its woes. If a woman had been CEO of GM, for instance, I have a funny feeling that GM wouldn't have bought Hummer--generally looked at as Rick Wagoner's most extreme folly.

Posted by tom peters at December 10, 2008 8:09 AM

Yeah, I see that.

Posted by Judith Ellis at December 10, 2008 9:49 AM

Are there any women CEO's in the Japanese or Korean car companies?

Posted by zed at December 10, 2008 10:04 AM

Zed, doubt it. But the Japanese sure as hell beat us at the design game. They opened California design centers 25 years ago, when CA was the Capitol of Cultural Cool, while we stayed Detroit-centric re design for a long, long time. Also, the Japanese instinctively take to smaller things than we do. I love Texas to death, but also love my little Subaru (built in Indiana, as I recall).

(Ford put women on a Volvo design team a few years ago--and it was considered radical. This was after Ross Roberts, boss of the Ford Div of Ford, had lectured me personally on how many cars were bought bt women. Go figure.)

Posted by tom peters at December 10, 2008 10:52 AM

Tom,

I have been following your thoughts on this particular topic for many years and even have a few thoughts of my own on the subject.

http://tinyurl.com/4w3zvh

BUT - although Australian most of my own career has been spent in the developing and underdeveloped worlds.

The trend you are talking about is powerful, and is earth shifting... but it is extremely isolated.

In fact, aside from Western Nations (Read: Australia the EU, North America and Japan) it really isn't a force at all.

Sad, but a fact. Western nations are the minority, and we are no longer the ascending power economically.

This trend does not exist in Latin America, Asia (most) The Middle East (Forget it!) or Africa. And it is nations from these blocs that are becoming economically powerful.

So is the evolution of business something that is going to stop at the end of Western Shores?

Posted by Daryl Mather at December 10, 2008 11:25 AM

Yes, the evolution of cultures often take a while, especially in some places where a simple lack of a headdress can mean instant death or to be in a classroom could mean ostracism. But in time we would imagine that some things will take root that will enable a freer more just society.

Culture, usually based in some form of destructive religious practice be it Christianity, Islam or Judaism, has long been a great obstacle to overcome. The trend always begins somewhere and in time the global society affirms or rejects it. That women should be regarded as equals in the global society is well overdue. Yet, we wait and work for equality, a meritocracy.

Regarding the evolution of business, do you think that Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are in Africa simply as care-taking-do-gooders? This is not to devalue doing good by any means. In fact, capital does good.

While there is no need to seek to monopolize the evolution of business worldwide, there remains that modern entrepreneurialism that the West fostered that is by no means dead. The evolution of one society does not mean the death of another.

Posted by Judith Ellis at December 10, 2008 3:06 PM

Even if women are gaining jobs, they still generally earn less than men for the same/comparable jobs, and service jobs generally pay less than manufacturing. Still much ground to be made up to reach meritocracy.

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